The history of hygiene in Russia
The history of hygiene is the history of human struggle for survival. Despite the fact that the enemy in this war is so small that we cannot even see with the eye, more than once humanity was almost defeated, and stood on the brink of extinction from terrible epidemics. The main cause of the epidemics was unsanitary conditions. Contrary to the well-known and often quoted poem by Lermontov "Farewell, unwashed Russia", compared to its neighbors, Russia was by no means unwashed. The traditions of hygiene have been strong here since ancient times, and the very history of hygiene in Russia is much older than in many other countries.
So, if we talk about personal hygiene, then irrefutable information that it was maintained at a fairly high level, we find already in the first Russian chronicler, Nestor, in his famous work "The Tale of Bygone Years", dating back to the beginning of the 12th century. Describing the wanderings of the Apostle Andrew, the very first disciple of Christ, respectively, his contemporary, Nestor also mentions washing in the bath: “… And they will stir up a young man on this rod and beat themselves … And douse themselves with chill water … not torture. " It is obvious that a traditional Russian wood-fired sauna is described, which is still in great demand. It is possible to dispute the fact that Andrew the First-Called really saw this in Veliky Novgorod, since the difference of at least a thousand years between the events is too great, but it is obviousthat in the time of Nestor, washing in the bath was quite natural.
Many travelers, arriving in Russia, were surprised at the custom of Russians to take a steam bath, about which written evidence has been preserved that went down in the history of hygiene in Russia. So, one of the contemporaries of Peter the Great, chamber junker Berholz, described in detail to his compatriots the traditions of the Russian bath. Peter the Great himself is known as a great lover of baths, one of which he built with his own hands, being a carpenter at a Dutch shipyard.
Later, in St. Petersburg, they were given permission for the duty-free construction of baths. Several beautiful baths - one for the royal family, another simpler for the courtiers, were built on the territory of the Grand Palace.
The history of public hygiene also demonstrates the importance of maintaining cleanliness. It was forbidden to build houses in swampy lowlands, where the air and water are unclean: "there is no other water more harmful than swamp," the ancient author points out. It is also known that they began to pave pavements in Russia three hundred years earlier than in Europe, and monitor the quality of drinking water even earlier. The famous "Domostroy", dating back to the 16th century, describes the sanitary rules for storing food and preparing food.
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